• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Italian govt rebuffs pressure on CIA kidnap case

Posted on: Thursday, 2 March 2006, 10:08 CST

By Phil Stewart

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's justice minister accused magistrates of trying to force his hand in a case against 22 CIA agents who are accused of kidnapping a Muslim imam off the streets of Milan and flying him to Egypt for torture.

Justice Minister Roberto Castelli is under pressure to approve a request by magistrates to seek the extradition of the American suspects, a move which political analysts believe is unlikely given the government's close ties with Washington.

Castelli cautioned on Thursday that his decision involved "interests of the state" and added there was no time limit for him to make a decision.

"The law gives the Justice Ministry the faculty to decide taking into account the interests of the state," Castelli said in comments to Italian media confirmed by his spokeswoman.

"The pressuring from them is completely unjust."

Chief Prosecutor Armando Spataro has said a CIA team seized terrorism suspect Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, in Milan in 2003 and flew him for interrogation in Egypt. He says evidence showed Nasr was tortured there.

Spataro, who says he is ready to try the Americans in absentia, has repeatedly criticized Castelli for footdragging and on Thursday he issued a statement rebuffing the minister.

In it, he said four months had passed since he had made the extradition request, adding that the government risked breaching the "reasonable" length of time envisioned by law.

"No 'matters of state' can justify avoiding the requirements of the law and the principle of loyal co-operation between institutions," he said.

He added he had no objection to the ministry considering state interests "among which I imagine is the protection of the Italian state's violated sovereignty."

Washington has not directly responded to the accusations.

Italian investigators have accused Nasr of ties to al Qaeda and Spataro has said the U.S. abduction ruined his own investigation into Abu Omar and other terrorism suspects.

He told European lawmakers in Brussels last week that "other accomplices would have been identified" had Italian authorities been able to continue their investigation.

The European Parliament and the Council of Europe are watching the Italian case carefully as they move ahead with their own investigations into suspected U.S. anti-terrorism operations, including running secret prisons in eastern Europe.

German and Swiss prosecutors are also looking into other accusations of U.S. covert transport of detainees, a process known as "rendition."

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category